Police Cleared In Fatal Crash

February 3, 2001|By ARDY FRIEDBERG Staff Writer

An investigation by the Broward State Attorney's Office has concluded there was no criminal conduct by law enforcement officers involved in the search for the victim of a car accident on Sept. 29, 2000.

Dario Restrepo, 70, of Weston, died early that morning after his car ran off the road as he was trying to merge from Interstate 595 to southbound Interstate 75 during a heavy rainstorm. His Mercedes struck a concrete wall and overturned in a ditch filled with four to five feet of water.

Diane Bilodeau, who was behind Restrepo's car, saw it spin, then plunge off the highway at about 1 a.m. She pulled over and unsuccessfully tried to flag down other motorists. She then drove south to the Arvida Parkway exit, found two Broward Sheriff's Office deputies and alerted them.

The deputies searched but were unable to locate the accident. Eventually, three Sheriff's Office units were involved in the unsuccessful search of the area Bilodeau had indicated.

The wreck was finally found about 7:15 a.m. when another motorist, Richard Brady, a Pembroke Pines firefighter paramedic on his way to work, spotted the partly submerged car and called 911.

The investigation was the result of a complaint by members of Restrepo's family who said he could have been saved if the deputies had conducted a more diligent search.

The 12-page summary of the investigation found that Restrepo drowned in his water-filled car minutes after the crash, that Bilodeau gave inexact directions to the crash scene, and that the deputies showed no negligence in their search.

"Given the facts and circumstances in this case," the report says, "there is insufficient evidence to proceed with a good-faith prosecution. The evidence portrays a sequence of unfortunate events in which a member of our community died as a result of a vehicular accident."